Second and later chances await alternate door to Baseball Hall of Fame

From Richard Sandomir at the New York Times on December 8, 2013, with mention of SABR members Jeff Idelson and Jay Jaffe:

For as long as the Baseball Hall of Fame has stood on Main Street in Cooperstown, N.Y., old-timers and veterans committees have elected those whom baseball writers have not — from Connie Mack and Iron Joe McGinnity to Phil Rizzuto and Walter O’Malley. With their broad portfolio of available candidates, whose achievements span the history of baseball, the committees have elected more members, 162, than the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which has anointed 112.

On Monday, the latest incarnation of the veterans committee will assess the credentials of 12 nominees, including one giant who has been frequently rejected: Marvin Miller, the trailblazing executive director of the players’ union who altered baseball’s economics and the course of player freedom. Miller, who died last year, was spurned five times from 2003 to 2010. Sometimes amused and sometimes embittered by the treatment, Miller believed that he would never get in as long as former and current front office executives were voting on his transformative stewardship of the union.

The expansion era committee will also vote on three managers who have each won more than 2,000 games (Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre); George Steinbrenner, the principal owner of the Yankees who died in 2010; Billy Martin, the manager whom Steinbrenner serially hired and fired; and six players who have exhausted their 15 years of eligibility with the baseball writers.

This is the second time the expansion era committee will vote. In 2010, it elected Pat Gillick, the successful former Toronto, Seattle and Baltimore executive.

But it rejected Miller, Steinbrenner, Martin and four players it is now reconsidering: Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Ted Simmons and Dave Concepcion.